In its Dec. 7 issue, The Garden Island provided us with an extraordinary coverage of a painful attack 75 years ago. In addition to the full front page coverage, long articles and factual reports in TGI retold us this tragedy
In its Dec. 7 issue, The Garden Island provided us with an extraordinary coverage of a painful attack 75 years ago. In addition to the full front page coverage, long articles and factual reports in TGI retold us this tragedy and the unjust internment of people of Japanese origin in the United States and Hawaii, there was not a single word of condemnation either by the Japanese or the Americans.
The stories tell us that Japan was the aggressor and the United States and Hawaii were the victims. A few Japanese people also voiced their former support for the United States.
According to the articles, many enlisted in the U.S. military to fight against the aggressor even if it meant to fight their own countrymen if ordered.
This is a very misleading lesson for the young people today.
Then a parade was organized on Oahu. Special remembrance events were held in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere on the scale of national celebrations.
We have not seen such an extensive coverage of even the American Independence Day in TGI.
The message is very confusing. Why do the Americans have to celebrate a loss which happened as the result of the failure of U.S. military intelligence so extensively and festively every year even 75 years later? Perhaps they don’t have enough successes worth the celebration.
In 1893, the constitutional government of the Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown by the United States, so in this case the United States was the aggressor and the Hawaiians are the victims.
So, we Hawaiians request the country and the media to celebrate Jan. 16, the 124th anniversary of the illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Islands with the same fanfare as the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in support of the victims.
The flags should also fly on half-mast. Don’t we deserve it?
We also demand TGI to come out with several pages reporting on this sad anniversary of the Hawaiian nation on Jan. 16. We doubt that the reporters will be able to find enough Hawaiians who are the descendants of those who had volunteered to fight the aggressors and make a report with those, but it will be enough to find enough Hawaiians who publicly approve the illegal actions of the United States occupying the Hawaiian Islands and are willing to give their names and whereabouts for the reports.
This is what we will call equitable coverage under the principle of fairness.
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Timothy Oga is a resident of Hanapepe.
